St. Louis Post-Dispatch photographer Robert Cohen, center in the white beanie, covers protests in October 2014 surrounding the Ferguson police shooting of Michael Brown Jr.
For more than two decades, Robert Cohen’s camera has captured the many sides of St. Louis.
April was his final month at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, concluding a nearly 40-year career across the country that spanned numerous changes in technology and the journalism industry.
Cohen took his first professional photography job in 1988 with The Sun-Tattler, a newspaper based in Hollywood, Florida. His career in photojournalism eventually brought him to St. Louis, where he spent 25 years with the Post-Dispatch.
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Robert Cohen
Robert Cohen’s staff badge at The Sun-Tattler in southern Florida at the beginning of his decades-long photojournalism, left, and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where he recently retired.
His first assignments were in the years of black-and-white photography
“We came back and developed our film by hand, printed it by hand and brought the prints out to the desk editors who were designing the pages,” he told St. Louis on the Air. “It's a very step-by-step process.”
There were no digital cameras with Wi-Fi connections. Everything had to be transferred and produced quickly, even if that meant leaving an event early.
“If we covered a high school football game, we'd stay for about a quarter,” he said. “We'd rush back to the paper, we'd develop the film. When we printed the film, the film was usually still wet. We didn't have time to dry it.”
Cohen’s lens traced a dizzying number of topics, from the profound to the everyday. Twice a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, his photos were included in the Post-Dispatch’s winning submission in 2015. It was Cohen who photographed Edward “Skeeda" Crawford throwing a tear gas canister during a night of protests — considered by many to be the most iconic image of the Ferguson Uprising.
Cohen took the photo shortly after midnight on Aug. 13, 2014. It was the start of a long stretch of late nights documenting the movements of protesters and police. When he photographed Crawford, Cohen didn’t realize he’d captured something special.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Edward Crawford tosses a tear gas canister fired by police who were trying to disperse protesters in Ferguson on Aug. 13, 2014. Four days earlier, unarmed black teenager Michael Brown Jr. was shot to death by a police officer, igniting unrest in the St. Louis area and across the nation. Crawford spoke to the newspaper about the image in 2014.
“I didn't have a lot of reaction at the time because I was trying to get the picture to the paper before deadline,” Cohen said. “I've never had any picture that had this type of response. … It started showing up across the country on billboards and sides of buildings, and it just took on a life of its own. Within 24 hours on the streets of Ferguson, people were selling T-shirts with that image on it.”
On Friday’s St. Louis on the Air, Cohen reflected on his nearly 40-year career in photojournalism, discussing his time in Ferguson, photographing Albert Pujols’ 700th home run and more.
Please scroll down to see some notable images from Robert Cohen's career and the photos discussed in the interview.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"Open your mouth, Virg. C'mon, open your mouth for Daddy," encourages Lawrence Carroll in 2002 as he struggles to feed his wife a dinner of chicken nuggets at the side of her bed. After more than 50 years as husband and wife, living together in the same house, raising their son, Lawrence and Virgie Carroll all but shared each breath. They walked together in Handy Park, read Scripture and attended church regularly, listened to their favorite old jazz recordings and entertained musical friends around their kitchen table. Despite Lawrence’s love and best efforts, however, Virgie’s health was failing. He could barely face the inevitable — that he wasn’t strong enough and couldn’t be attentive enough to keep his frail wife from danger. It was clear to their only child, Mark, that he had to do something to help his mother, his father — and himself. The photo story following Lawrence and Virgie Carroll was a Best of Show winner at the 2003 National Headliner Awards.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
The nostalgia of the Missouri State Fair is captured on one last roll of Kodachrome in August 2010. Read the story.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Lightning strikes outside Room 306 of the old Lorraine Motel, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, on April 3, 2018, in Memphis. On the night before King was shot in 1968, a rainstorm entered the city as he was preparing for his final speech at nearby Mason Temple. The motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum. See more of Robert Cohen's 2018 best photos.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
"All I really need to accomplish are two lanes for my car," said Richard Burst as he cleared snow in Webster Groves on Nov. 15, 2018. St. Louis Post-Dispatch photojournalist Robert Cohen was honored by the National Headliner Awards for the image.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For years, St. Louis has had one of the highest homicide rates in the world. The city reached 262 people killed in 2020, a total not seen in decades and just five shy of an all-time record. "It's OK, let her go," yells a family member as Khalilah January sees her daughter Deosha "Princess" Purnell for a final time, supported by her brother Cedric Huntley and sister Dana Stegall on Sept. 25, 2020. Deosha, 15, was wounded in a drive-by shooting at a gas station in the Riverview neighborhood and later died in a hospital.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
LEFT: St. Louis firefighter Josh Roth carries a girl from a burning apartment, one of four children rescued on Aug. 15, 2019, near the Lafayette Square neighborhood in St. Louis. Three were in cardiac arrest and had to be revived. They had been left unattended in the apartment. All four were listed as stable in a hospital by late afternoon. RIGHT: As morning temperatures begin to rise, Jimmy Johnson sweeps dust and burning embers from a warming fire out of his living room on Oct. 24, 2018. Resembling a dollhouse, the crumbling 1892 row home in north St. Louis along Interstate 70 is owned by the city's land bank. Johnson, 58, lives in the living room and sleeps in an adjoining closet. "This house could fall down at any time," said Johnson. "I guess God has my back."
Robert Cohen
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Memphis Commercial-Appeal
Sharon smokes crack cocaine in her Memphis bedroom in 1989, unaware of children coming and going. A $50 booklet of food stamps buys two $15 rocks — gone in minutes.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Cherri Trantham breaks down alongside her husband, Joe, at the Budget Inn as the couple faces eviction from their motel room, where they had lived since losing their trailer in late August 2009. That morning, the Tranthams called churches seeking help to pay their hotel bill. "My family is very desperate right now," Cherri Trantham said. "I’m at my wit’s end." A collection of photographs from this story was named a finalist for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in feature photography.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Fireworks go off at an empty Busch Stadium as the St. Louis Cardinals' Dexter Fowler hits a solo home run in the fifth inning against the Pittsburgh Pirates to open the virus-delayed baseball season on July 24, 2020.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Blues fans crush to get a touch of the Stanley Cup as Brayden Schenn walks it toward the Gateway Arch after the championship parade in downtown St. Louis on June 15, 2019.
Robert Cohen
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Eat-Rite Diner's Sarah Williams had cooked for only two takeout customers by nightfall in downtown St. Louis during the pandemic on March 18, 2020. "I have no idea what to think, I just want to go home at this point," said Williams.
To hear the full interview with Robert Cohen, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcasts or by clicking the play button below.
